Staying Informed About Important Events

Notifications keep team members aware of important events requiring attention. Task assignments, urgent health observations, biosecurity alerts, and system updates. Rather than constantly checking for updates, notifications deliver important information directly to you when it happens.

Notification Types

Notifications use different types indicating importance and category:

Info (Blue): General information, routine updates, non-urgent notifications. Task assigned to you. Observation recorded for animal you're monitoring. Routine system updates.

Success (Green): Positive confirmations, completed actions, successful operations. Task you assigned was completed. Data export finished successfully. System update completed without issues.

Warning (Yellow): Important situations requiring attention but not immediately critical. Task approaching due date. Observation flagged for review. System maintenance scheduled.

Error (Red): Critical issues requiring immediate attention. Task overdue. Biosecurity alert triggered. System error affecting your work. Urgent health observation requiring immediate response.

Type Indicates Priority: Red notifications need immediate attention. Blue notifications can be reviewed when convenient. Colour coding helps you prioritise response.

Notification Sources

Notifications originate from different system areas:

System: System-generated notifications about updates, maintenance, or system events.

Biosecurity: Alerts about quarantine events, biosecurity protocol triggers, disease risks, outbreak notifications.

Health: Urgent health observations, treatment reminders, veterinary consultations flagged for attention.

Tasks: Task assignments, task completions, overdue tasks, task reassignments.

User Actions: Notifications triggered by other users' actions affecting your work (someone assigned you a task, updated an animal you're monitoring, flagged an observation for your review).

Source Indicates Context: Biosecurity notifications relate to disease management. Task notifications relate to work assignments. Source helps you understand what the notification concerns.

Notification Priorities

Notifications have priority levels affecting how prominently they're displayed:

High Priority: Urgent health observations, biosecurity alerts, critical system errors, and overdue high-priority tasks.

Medium Priority: Task assignments, routine warnings, and scheduled maintenance alerts.

Low Priority: General information, routine updates, and success confirmations.

Priority Affects Presentation: High-priority notifications appear more prominently. May include sound alerts. Persist until acknowledged. Low-priority notifications appear subtly. Can be dismissed easily.

Viewing Notifications

Notification Centre: Access notification centre to view all notifications: Recent notifications (last 24 hours), unread notifications, all notifications (including read), and filtered by type or source.

Notification Indicator: Notification icon shows unread count (e.g., "5" unread notifications). Click icon to view notification centre.

Individual Notification Details: Each notification shows type and priority (colour, icon), title (brief description), message (detailed information), timestamp (when notification occurred), source (what triggered notification), and related link (click to view related record: task, animal, observation).

Example Notification:

Type: Info (Blue)
Priority: Medium
Title: Task Assigned
Message: "Morning health check - North Paddock" assigned to you by Sarah Johnson
Time: 2 minutes ago
Source: Tasks
[View Task →]

Managing Notifications

Mark as Read: Click notification to mark as read. Read notifications appear differently (greyed out or moved to "read" section).

Dismiss Notification: Remove notification from your notification centre. Dismissed notifications no longer appear. Remain in system logs if needed for reference.

Mark All as Read: Quickly mark all current notifications as read. Clears unread indicator.

Delete All Notifications: Clear entire notification history (older notifications you no longer need).

Desktop vs Mobile:

Desktop: Notifications appear in notification centre (icon in header). Can view full notification history. Manage multiple notifications at once (mark all as read).

Mobile: Notifications appear as push notifications (if enabled). Notification centre accessible from menu. Quick actions (dismiss, mark read) from notification view.

Notification Settings

Control which notifications you receive and how they're delivered:

Notification Preferences: Enable/disable specific notification types. Set priority thresholds (only show high-priority, or all priorities). Configure notification sounds (desktop). Enable/disable mobile push notifications.

Team-Wide Alerts: Some notifications sent to entire team or specific roles (biosecurity alerts to all staff, urgent health observations to veterinarians, system updates to all users). These typically can't be disabled. Critical to operations.

Team Notifications

Certain events trigger notifications to multiple team members:

Biosecurity Alerts: When biosecurity event occurs, all staff assigned to affected location receive notification.

Urgent Health Observations: When observation flagged as urgent requiring veterinary attention, veterinarians and assigned animal care staff notified.

Task Reassignments: When task reassigned, both original assignee and new assignee receive notifications.

System Maintenance: Critical system updates or maintenance windows notify all active users.

Team Awareness: Team notifications ensure important information reaches everyone who needs to know. Not just individual directly involved.

Acting on Notifications

Most notifications link to related records:

Task Notification: Click "View Task" to open task details, update status, add notes.

Observation Notification: Click "View Observation" to see health observation details, flag for follow-up, create treatment task.

Biosecurity Notification: Click "View Biosecurity Event" to see quarantine details, contact tracing, affected animals.

System Notification: Click "Learn More" to view system update details, maintenance schedule, required actions.

Direct Navigation: Notifications provide fastest way to reach relevant records. No searching or navigating through menus.

Notification Best Practices

Regular Review: Check notification centre daily. Stay aware of assignments, alerts, and important events.

Prompt Response to High-Priority: Red/error notifications require immediate attention. Don't ignore critical alerts.

Mark as Read After Reviewing: Keep unread notifications meaningful by marking reviewed notifications as read.

Use Linked Records: Click through to related records. Rather than trying to act based on notification summary alone.

Configure Preferences: Adjust notification settings to reduce noise. Ensure critical alerts still reach you.

Don't Disable Critical Notifications: Biosecurity alerts and urgent health notifications should remain enabled. Even if you want to reduce general notification volume.

Common Notification Scenarios

Task Assignment: Sarah assigns you morning health check task. Notification: Type: Info (blue), Priority: Medium, Message: "Morning health check - North Paddock" assigned by Sarah Johnson. Action: Click "View Task" to see details and due date.

Biosecurity Alert: Quarantine initiated at East Paddock. All staff receive notification: Type: Error (red), Priority: High, Message: "Biosecurity quarantine initiated - East Paddock. Sheep showing respiratory symptoms." Action: Click "View Biosecurity Event" to see affected animals and protocol requirements.

Overdue Task: Task you're assigned became overdue. Notification: Type: Warning (yellow), Priority: High, Message: "Task overdue: Equipment maintenance - West Paddock". Action: Click "View Task" to complete or update status.

System Update: System maintenance scheduled. All users notified: Type: Info (blue), Priority: Low, Message: "System maintenance scheduled for Sunday 2 AM - 4 AM. Brief downtime expected." Action: Note maintenance window, plan work accordingly.

Notification Troubleshooting

Not Receiving Notifications: Check notification preferences (may be disabled). Verify internet connection (notifications require connectivity). Check notification centre directly (may not be seeing indicators).

Too Many Notifications: Adjust notification preferences to reduce volume. Increase priority threshold (only high-priority notifications). Disable non-critical notification types.

Missing Critical Notifications: Don't disable error/warning notifications. Ensure biosecurity and health notifications enabled. Check notification settings haven't been accidentally changed.